Thursday, January 19, 2012

How Republicans Killed Their Own Pet Oil Pipeline Project

They relished the idea of forcing President Obama to take a public stand on the pipeline early in an election year, instead of after the election as he had wanted. And they were eager to force him to choose between supporters in the labor movement, some of whom are pushing for the pipeline, and others in the environmental movement who vehemently oppose it. So they decided to go for it.

At the same time they knew he’d likely have to reject the project, and for them that created a dilemma.

“It’s a question of whether we’d rather have the pipeline or the issue,” said one of the GOP aides. Black or white.

In the end they chose the issue.

Well of course they did. They'd rather have something to use against Obama than do anything useful.

At her own Capitol briefing Wednesday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi took issue with these claims.

“If the Republicans cared so much about the Keystone pipeline, they would not have narrowed the president’s options by putting it on the time frame they did,” Pelosi said. “They left him very little choice…. This oil was always destined for overseas. It’s just a question of whether it leaves Canada by way of Canada, or it leaves Canada by way of the United States. So without taking a position on the pipeline, I don’t agree to the stipulation that this is oil that’s going to China now instead of the US. It was always going overseas. I don’t know where to, but it wasn’t for domestic consumption. And that’s really an important point because the advertising is quite to the contrary.”

Tar sands oil is junk. They have to add natural gas to it to get it to flow. The idea of burying a coupla-thousand-mile-long piece of steel so they can pump toxic flammable abrasive sandblast media across our nation so they can refine it INTO LIQUID CRUDE OIL so they can sell it on the world market has always seemed stupid and greedy to me. When that shit ground its way through the pipe and/or sprang a leak into the Ogallala Aquifer or anywhere, it'd be Katy-bar-the-door and OUR problem and fuck us, eh?

Putting the pipe in a lined trench, roofed against the weather, with an automatic shutoff every coupla miles and a constant human patrol would be prohibitively expensive. Burying it is quick and dirty and more profit while it lasts.

Note to Canuckistan: Run the goddam pipe due west to British Columbia so it'll be YOUR problem. I bet you're not allowed to do that either.

I'll give Reagan a few points for being a pragmatist. He was able to see what was needed and part from the ideology sometimes. Like when it came to raising taxes vs. wiping out the safety net. Today's GOP just downright refuse to do anything.

As it happens, there are plans to run a honkin' big pipeline full of that crap from the Tar Sands across northern British Columbia, an environment even more pristine and fragile, to a terminal on the North Coast where huge oil tankers will on occasion crash into the numerous rocks and obstacles in stormy waters up there, so destroying anything that lives in said waters. And whatever makes it out will go to China, where it will come back in the form of cheap plastic gewgaws and transoceanic air pollution.

There a certain amount of domestic uproar about this, and the Canadian government's latest tactic is to smear the anti-pipeline people as paid foreign agents because some American organizations have given them some money to carry on and get their message out.

I understand that on the one hand environmental organizations would do this for the sake of preserving the environment, and American oil companies could conceivably be involved too since they are busy trying to sell American oil to China, and probably don't want the competition. And yet, the Canadian government conveniently ignores the hypocrisy of their attack, because in their fervent backing of the pipeline, they are in effect acting as paid agents of the Chinese, British, French and yes American part-owners of the companies extracting that gunk from the Sands.

Gordon

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"... That's US here at the Brain! Sittin' all alone out in the cold, thanklessly freezin' our beboops off, lookin' for a chance to lob a few at the enemy and praying for a secondary explosion, wonderin' if it's all worth it or if it will make any difference in the scheme of things ..." - Gordon